DESIRE
by just another weasley
Summary: *complete* a lil r/hr fic about the heart's desire, i think it's cute... you decide- REVIEW!!!


Hi there! I like reviews. This is supposed to be a nice short story, I like it and I hope you do too!  
  
  
  
PART ONE: Harry  
  
  
  
Harry woke up suddenly, like he'd done many times this year. Quietly, he reached for his glasses and slipped them on. Peaking through the slit in his bed curtains, he saw just what he had expected. Checking his watch, he shook his heat lightly.  
  
"Right on time," he murmured.  
  
It was a quarter to midnight, fifteen minutes until Monday. For the past couple of months Harry had woken at a quarter to midnight every other Monday. He woke up because, unlike his roommates, he was a very light sleeper. The clicking and creaking of a trunk opening, the movement of fabrics and sundry items as hands searched through the messy trunk for a cloak, they were the sounds that woke him but no one else. Finally, there was the swish of the cloak being put on and the creak of the door as his roommate left.  
  
Harry sighed.  
  
"This has gone on long enough," he declared as he slipped out of bed and got his invisibility cloak out of the trunk. He was tired and grumpy, and as he passed the girls dormitory he whispered angrily.  
  
"Never should have gotten him that bloody gift. It's a waste of money, time, and sleep."  
  
He followed the quiet footsteps as best he could and prayed he was going the right way. An occasional glimmer let him know he was all right. He turned into and empty hallway with a feeling of deja vu. He realized momentarily that it was the third floor corridor- forbidden first year. He watched the trap door, no longer guarded, open and close and he heard a thump and 'oof!' that told him he was in the right place. He followed and fell on the dead remains of the Devils Snare, then he walked through the next few rooms. It was strange, seeing them cleaned out of the magical enchantments once held there. He paused before entering the 'Chess Room' and wondered if that was what this was all about: a "challenging" game of chess. But when he entered the room, he gasped.  
  
The giant game of wizards chess was gone, instead it was a spotless room lined with beautiful mirrors. Big ones, small ones, some that distorted your images, some with jeweled edges, some framed in silver, others in platinum, bronze, and gold. After staring in amazement, he remembered why he was there: it wasn't a stroll down memory lane, not to gaze at a room full of mirrors, it was to see where his insomniac friend went every other Monday at 11:45 pm. He looked around the room until he saw it, in a dark corner, he'd seen all he needed. Harry turned on his heel, walked back through the rooms, pulled himself through the trap door and walked back to his bed.  
  
  
  
  
  
PART TWO: Hermione  
  
  
  
Ron sat down and sighed. It wasn't a depressed sigh, but a sigh full of thoughts and feelings he wished could just be blown away. Yet, he thought, if they were gone he couldn't be happy. He wouldn't be himself, for these thoughts, these feelings; they were a part of who he was. Not always, but who he was now, who he'd become over the past six years.  
  
He stood up and traced the intricate designs with his finger. He traced the words carved into the top. Once again ton looked into the mirror. He took a deep breath and picked up his cloak. Ron left the room with his head full of thoughts, both new and old.  
  
The cloak was new, and one of his most treasured possessions. A girt from his two best friends; a combined gift of Christmas and his birthday last year, this year, and Christmas of next. He was overjoyed with the gift, and thought it was worth even more then those measly holidays- he knew it cost a small fortune: more money then he'd ever had. It was an invisibility cloak, not quite as good as Harry's. It wasn't quite as good because when he moved quickly it would sometimes shimmer a bit.  
  
  
  
"Ahhhhh!" Hermione let out a frustrated cry, and she erased another roll of parchment.  
  
"What's wrong?" Ron asked as he sad down across from her.  
  
"It's my essay for muggle studies," she said in a strained voice. (I know she dropped muggle studies, but it works for my story.)  
  
"Well, you're brilliant.and muggle born. try to relax and I'm sure it'll be perfect in the end."  
  
"Oh Ron, I've tried to relax, but it's due TOMORROW!"  
  
Ron's face lit up like a Christmas tree, or like a child who just saw how many presents were under it. Hermione saw this and was much less than amused.  
  
"You?" Ron asked, "YOU put something off until the last minute? You? Put SCHOOLWORK off till the last minute? It's a dream! Pinch me! Perfect Prefect now Head Girl Hermione Granger, PROCRASTINATED!?!" Ron laughed.  
  
"RON! It's not funny! I just can't get it done! It's. it's not a 'from the book kind' kind of essay. It's. something I just don't know."  
  
His happy face dropped as her eyes started tearing. He pulled his chair next to hers and put an arm around her shoulders.  
  
"Shhh.I'm sorry Hermione, just try to calm down a bit, it'll all be okay. I'm sorry, I wouldn't have teased you if I knew- you said it was a muggle studies essay and well, you grew up muggle I didn't think that you wouldn't -"  
  
"It's okay Ron."  
  
Hermione always knew when Ron was truly sorry. Ron wasn't one to give apologies, in fact- she was the only person he'd ever given a straight apology to, but she had yet to realize that."  
  
"So tell me what this essay's on."  
  
"Why?"  
  
"Maybe I can help."  
  
"I doubt it, in fact I'm pretty sure that this paper is completely hopeless."  
  
"Tell me anyway."  
  
"It has a two parts, one is easy. My topic is the Mirror of Erised,"  
  
"Okay."  
  
"Well I have to write the history and what it does and such, that's the easy part."  
  
"And the second part?"  
  
"If I looked into the mirror, what I think I'd see."  
  
A wicked gleam was present in his eyes and a smirk placed happily across his face.  
  
"Meet me here at eleven forty-five."  
  
"Why? I don't want to get in trouble Ron. I'm Head Girl and-"  
  
"Just do it."  
  
"But Ron, if I meet you near midnight for your "brilliant plan" when will I write my paper?"  
  
"As usual, you are right. put your things away and meet me at the portrait hole in ten minutes."  
  
"Okay, but Ronald Weasley this has better be GOOD! If this is just a waste of my time I swear I'll-"  
  
"I promise- this will help."  
  
Ron ran to the dorm and threw open his trunk. He tossed some clothes around and pulled out his invisibility cloak. He tucked it under his arm and started for the door.  
  
"Ron."  
  
"Hey Harry I've got to go, I'm-"  
  
"Going to the mirror AGAIN?"  
  
"How did you know that if. did you follow me?"  
  
"Last night. That is where you go every other Monday isn't it?"  
  
"Yes, but-"  
  
"You know men have wasted away in front of that mirror. Dumbledore told me about it. 'It does not do to dwell on dreams,' he said, 'and forget to live.'"  
  
"Harry, trust me, I go there for.inspiration, for lack of a better word. I go there to concentrate on my life, to keep my direction. You know, make sure I don't stray from my dreams. They change you know, every so often it's different. Now I have to go. I'm gonna be late."  
  
"Late? For what?"  
  
"I'm helping Hermione with a muggle studies paper," he called over his shoulder as he rushed down the stairs, leaving a very confused Harry behind."  
  
"Ron, helping Hermione with a paper for muggle studies?! I don't see the flying pigs! Has Hell frozen over and someone forgot to tell me? WHAT IS GOING ON!?"  
  
*  
  
"Sorry I'm late- Harry wanted to talk and he wouldn't shut up."  
  
Hermione laughed.  
  
"Okay, but this has better be good. If I'm losing time for nothing I'll-"  
  
She stopped, Ron was laughing.  
  
"Okay, okay, I get it, calm down. This will help, not come on." He pulled her into a dark corner.  
  
"Ron, what the HELL are you doing?"  
  
"Language young lady! I'm putting my invisibility cloak over us."  
  
He led her through the hallways and they both concentrated hard on where they were going because they had quickly realized they didn't both fit easily under the cloak anymore, and they both blushed deeply every time they bumped into each other. As they got nearer their destination Hermione recognized where they were going.  
  
"Ron, why are you taking me here?"  
  
"You'll see," he whispered, "And be quiet, we're invisible!" he laughed, causing her to smile.  
  
'God I love his laugh,' she thought. 'Whoa! Not this again. I do not, I will not, like Ron as anything but a friend- a best friend.'  
  
Ron opened and closed the door, then pulled off the cloak."  
  
"I usually don't take it off just yet but it's a bit crowded and we have to go one by one." His voice faded as he finished and his blush grew. A blush that Hermione scolded herself for thinking was cute.  
  
'We're just friends,' she told herself again, 'Our friendship's gotten so much better these past few years. Don't you go and ruin it with some stupid little crush!'  
  
"I'll go first so I can catch you at the bottom," said Ron, interrupting her thoughts.  
  
"I can fall myself thank you."  
  
"Trust me. I have a handsome bruise on my ass from jumping down there, no use in you getting one too."  
  
Hermione was blushing as she mumbled in agreement, but Ron had already jumped down.  
  
"READY!" he called.  
  
"Alright, I'm coming." She took a deep breath and jumped. Ron caught her at the bottom and also fell backwards, putting them in a very different position then they expected: A very.interesting position. Hermione jumped up as soon as she recovered from the shock, but it took Ron a minute longer to get off the floor.  
  
He and Hermione walked through the rooms with enough room for a car to pass between them easily. The only exception was through doorways. It made Hermione quite uncomfortable because for the first time she realized that Molly Weasley raised her sons to be chivalrous. Ron held open every door, she realized that he always pulled out a chair for her at meals, if there was no chairs in the common room he always gave up his for here. He did the same for Ginny, Pavarti, Lavender, he even made other guys get up if a girl didn't have a seat. She was amazed that she had never noticed it before. The only un-gentlemanly thing she could think of was his use of crude language. Her thoughts were cut short as she entered the next room. The beauty took her breath away, it glittered and shone and reflected all over. The wall-to-wall mirrors were quite different from the wizard's chess set she was expecting.  
  
"Okay," Ron said, "We're going to get some work done for that essay."  
  
He led her to a [normal] full-length mirror.  
  
"What do you see?"  
  
"Me."  
  
"No, describe what you see."  
  
"Umm, she has big brown eyes; ugly, bushy, frizzy, brown hair. She's not too fat, but not thin either. She has plain features and her nose is too big."  
  
Ron was shocked at Hermione's low self-esteem.  
  
"Want.to know what I see?"  
  
"Sure."  
  
"I see a beautiful young woman. She has gorgeous big brown eyes full of wisdom and knowledge, beautiful thick brown wavy hair with a reddish tint sometimes. She's thin, but not sickly skinny, and curvy in all the right places. She's a great friend, she's smart, funny, loyal, adventurous but cautious, and she cares a bit too much about grades and rules in my opinion but it keeps her busy and happy so it's okay."  
  
This little speech left both of them blushing and embarrassed. Ron quietly brought Hermione to the next mirror- one of the funhouse style mirrors. It made her look very tall and thin.  
  
"What do you see?"  
  
"A prettier girl than the last one. This girl is tall and thin, the other was too short. She's got a nicer and longer face; long eyelashes and her nose is much nicer, not so short and squished."  
  
"Want to know what I see?"  
  
"Alright."  
  
"I see a pretty girl. Way too tall and her nose is too long, the last girl had a cute nose, I think people call it a button nose. This girl is too thin, she looks like she's never eaten, and her eyelashes take up half of her face- hiding her would be beautiful-but-too-long features."  
  
"Ron, this is flattering but I don't think it's going to help me."  
  
"It is, it's teaching you what you want to look like, what you think you look like, and what others think you look like should look like or would look better as. Next mirror."  
  
The next mirror was another fun house mirror. This one made her look short and fat. Hermione insisted it was an ugly and heinous creature, and Ron managed to convince her that although the girl was overweight she was not disgusting. He told her that the image possessed a certain charm.  
  
Then Ron brought her to the mirror that she'd really come to see. [The others taught her a lesson in life.] The mirror was big and old. The frame was carved with intricate patterns and words across the top. Hermione didn't look at the frame, she looked straight at the reflection.  
  
"I see a teenager, this timer I look a little different, I-"  
  
"No, don't tell me, this one is yours and yours alone."  
  
Hermione looked up and read the words. She took a deep breath.  
  
"Thank you Ron! Thank you so much!"  
  
He just smiled and nodded so she turned back to see what her heart's desire was.  
  
She gasped.  
  
"What the."  
  
"What's wrong?"  
  
"Is this really the mirror of Erised?"  
  
"Yeah, why?"  
  
"No reason," she lied, without lifting her eyes from the mirror. She studied her reflection intensely. At first glance nothing was different, then she noticed her hair was not so bushy and had more red in it. It was much more flattering, but aside from that it was just she with Ron standing at her side.  
  
"You're positive?" she asked him  
  
"Absolutely positive." She turned around to face him and gasped.  
  
Ron was standing at the opposite end of the room, looking in a funhouse mirror.  
  
She whipped her head around to see her reflection once more.  
  
"But if Ron's over there," she wondered quietly, ".why's his reflection in my mi.Oh my GOD!"  
  
She watched as Ron's image moved, then glanced at the real Ron, then back at the mirror. Her eyes widened in shock as she saw BOTH images move.  
  
She watched 'Ron' lean down and kiss her neck, cheek, and then she turned her face in and he gently tipped her chin up: and they kissed.  
  
Hermione fell back in shock. Ron immediately ran over and lifted her up.  
  
"Are you okay?"  
  
"Fine."  
  
"What happened?"  
  
"My reflection startled me, that's all."  
  
"Wow, when I first saw my reflection a few months ago it surprised me but you must have had no clue whatsoever! That's actually kind of funny."  
  
"It would be hilarious if it wasn't so scary."  
  
"Scary?"  
  
"Like my heart wants me to star in a Soap Opera."  
  
"What's a Soap Opera?"  
  
"A story you watch with overly melodramatic plots and bad acting."  
  
"It's that bad?"  
  
"It's not bad, it's horrid. I just don't understand it."  
  
"I'd try to help, but it's really none of my business."  
  
'I wish it was none of his business,' she thought, 'but he really does deserve to know that HE is the deepest and most desperate desire of my heart.'  
  
"Hermione? Are you okay?"  
  
"Huh?"  
  
"You just zoned out."  
  
"Oh, I'm fine, just thinking."  
  
"Can I look in the mirror for a sec then?"  
  
"Hmmm? Oh, sure."  
  
She took a step to the side so that he was centered. Before he looked in the mirror he stared at his best friend with an unreadable look in his eyes. She pondered over that look for a good fifteen minute while he pondered over something else.  
  
Ron turned his head to face the mirror. He looked hard at the scene in front of him. It was the classic dream of schoolgirls, he thought. The big, but not huge, white house, white picket fence, small pond in the background. Lots of green grass. green grass with little children running around and playing. Freckle-faced, red-haired children, some on brooms, some buried in books, and some just fooling around. That wasn't the part of the picture that worried him, except maybe the books, what worried him was the girl- or women rather- standing next to him with her head on his shoulder. She was pregnant, she was his best friend: complete with chocolate brown eyes and bushy hair. That same girl he used to see as 'one of the guys.'  
  
Hermione didn't know why, but she stepped back towards Ron. Now they were equally centered in the mirror. She stared in the mirror, Ron stared at her wondering why she had done that. Both of them wondered why she'd done that. Ron turned and faced the mirror. For just a moment his deepest desire showed clearly, then the mirror swirled and he himself and Hermione just as they were, but Hermione's hair was different. He saw his reflection wink at him as it slid its hand around her waist. They watched 'Hermione' tilt her head up and demand a kiss. Ron was bewildered, until he looked at Hermione; looking scared, upset, and betrayed. could this be HER reflection? If so, it was too good to be true!  
  
Suddenly, the mirror swirled again. It skipped back and forth between the two images as though confused and abruptly the two knew what it meant.  
  
Hermione smiled and let the silent tears stream down her face. She had hated her reflection for fear that it would ruin her friendship with Ron, but his heart's desire was them married with kids (and money). a long term dream. When Hermione made that realization the mirror stopped flickering. It stopped flickering on Ron's dream, although it wasn't his dream any longer- it was theirs.  
  
  
  
And hidden in a shadow in the back of the room was a white haired wizard, with a twinkle in his eye, watching them. He whispered into the silence,  
  
"Most definitely one of my most brilliant ideas."  
  



End file.
